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A betavoltaic device (betavoltaic cell or betavoltaic battery) is a type of nuclear battery that generates electric current from beta particles emitted from a radioactive source, using semiconductor junctions. A common source used is the hydrogen isotope tritium.
Betacel is considered to be the first commercially successful betavoltaic battery. [1] [2] [3] It was developed in the early 1970s by Larry C. Olsen at the American corporation McDonnell Douglas, using the radioisotope Promethium-147 as the beta-electron source coupled to silicon semiconductor cells.
NanoTritium batteries employ principles of betavoltaic conversion and radioactive beta decay rather than conventional electrochemical cells to generate power, harnessing electrons released as the contained tritium naturally decays into helium-3, a non-radioactive isotope. [8]
The battery is a betavoltaic cell using carbon-14 (14 C) in the form of diamond-like carbon (DLC) as the beta radiation source, and additional normal-carbon DLC to make the necessary semiconductor junction and encapsulate the carbon-14. [2]
The non-thermal converters, such as betavoltaic cells, extract energy directly from the emitted radiation, before it is degraded into heat; they are easier to miniaturize and do not need a thermal gradient to operate, so they can be used in small machines. Atomic batteries usually have an efficiency of 0.1–5%.
Larry C. Olsen (25 July 1937 – 17 March 2020) was a pioneer in the commercialization of betavoltaic technology.While working for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation in the 1970s, Olsen lead the development of the first commercially available betavoltaic nuclear battery.
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Cell reversal can occur to a weakly charged cell even before it is fully discharged. If the battery drain current is high enough, the cell's internal resistance can create a resistive voltage drop that is greater than the cell's forward emf. This results in the reversal of the cell's polarity while the current is flowing.